


hey, welcome back

by rivalmatisse



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Black & White | Pokemon Black and White Versions
Genre: Gen, happy bday bw!!!, reunion fic finally. i wanted to write one of these but idk if its any good sajgnkd, sry if this is a little rushed!!! :0
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 09:36:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20691365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rivalmatisse/pseuds/rivalmatisse
Summary: A few months of travel, and nine years of worry.Cheren and Bianca can't help but still love their dear friend, even after no word for all this time.





	hey, welcome back

Nine years and one day ago, a group of three friends received news that the very next day they would be given a pokémon partner from the esteemed Professor Aurea Juniper, and be free to go on an adventure around their home region of Unova.

Exactly nine years ago, the group met their new best friends, named them, and battled each other for the very first time (resulting in one of their bedrooms to be utterly wrecked), before taking their very first steps as Pokémon Trainers together, arms linked as they stepped out into the unknown, proclaiming, "This is so exciting!" loud enough for anyone and everyone to hear.

Two of the three of them had set out goals for their journey.

The oldest of the group, a blonde haired girl named Bianca, wanted to try as many things as possible- the League challenge, musicals in Nimbasa, assisting various professors (including Juniper) in their research, archaeology... in the hopes of finding something she was interested in and passionate about.

The middle...est of the group was a black-haired, glasses-wearing boy named Cheren. He had a firm goal- become the Champion. He was driven, strong-willed and stubborn, and (mostly) unintentionally could be a little rude, even going so far as to snap a little at the then-current Champion.

Their friend, the youngest, who had brown hair that seemed to be in a permanent bedhead, and bright eyes that were warm and cool at the same time, had no idea what they wanted to gain from their journey. They simply enjoyed travelling with their pokémon partners. The feeling of freedom, the wind in their hair so strong it nearly blew their cap off, running through grass so tall it brushed at their knees, listening to the chirping of flocks of pidove and ducklett that flew overhead as they ran as fast as they could across a plain after a massive blue pokémon the height of a van that wasn't listed anywhere in their pokédex... those little things meant the world to them.

Though the three of them attempted to ignore it, their journey took a sour turn far too quickly.

The very same day that they'd set out to travel and grow, they encountered a group of individuals with rather insidious goals.

The younger two encountered an odd young man who simply went by 'N'. N insulted their task of completing Professor Juniper's PokéDex, calling it disgusting and vile to hunt down and capture so very many pokémon, to which Cheren's friend told N to shut it because he didn't know what he was talking about.

"The PokéDex isn't cruel," they had said, Cheren recalled, as he watched their previously neutral expression swiftly become a scowl, "We don't have to catch or hunt anything. Simply observe them and how they interact."

N's expression had changed now too, he looked puzzled, but was staring at the youngest's shoulder- where their partner was perched, the little pokémon's expression mimicking its Trainer's.

"So can it; _we_ wouldn't have just wandered up to _you_ and started shit."

A little taken aback, N stumbled over his words for a moment before challenging them to a battle. They begrudgingly accepted, if only to make him leave faster.

Cheren watched as his friend and their pokémon beat N so easily he looked rather humiliated. He returned his fallen purrloin to a pokéball (odd, Cheren had noted since he seemed so against them) and left without another word.

Cheren had remarked to his friend that he thought N was weird, to which they responded with bitterness in their voice.

"Yeah. Hope we don't run into _him_ again."

Unfortunately, they ran into N over and over again, sometimes with Cheren, once with Bianca, but mostly with nobody else to back them up.

They hated every meeting with him.

Being tricked into riding the ferris-wheel with him in Nimbasa... being talked down to in Chargestone cave... the whole scenario at Dragonspiral Tower in Icirrus. None of it was pleasant, and neither Cheren nor Bianca could ignore the toll it had taken on their dear friend.

They were still them, of course, but they were fatigued. They lost their temper quicker. Stayed up later and later training their pokémon. Barely joined their friends for lunch or exploration of new towns or forests.

Bianca remembered when the Nacrene Gym Leader, Lenora, handed over the cushioned box that contained the Dark Stone to them, her dear friend had accepted their given duty without hesitation, but she had seen as they soared back to Icirrus on the back of their unfezant how their face had reddened a little as they held back scared tears.

She'd managed to catch up to them as they'd begun to cross the Tubeline Bridge, wanting to reassure them that she was there for them if they needed her.

They hadn't said anything, just held the box with the Dark Stone inside closer to their chest, and nodded. Bianca thought they looked close to tears again.

And it was the same when both she and Cheren managed to catch them just before they headed through the badge gates.

There was no smile from them.

Nothing corny like they would have said were this the first day.

No "No need to worry, I'm not gonna let some pine-tree-looking jerk push me around!"

They didn't say anything at all, save for calling out commands during a battle with Cheren, and thanking their pokémon for the hard work.

This time, it was Cheren and Bianca who turned away to leave after once again reminding their friend that they'd help them in any way they could, should the Champion lose to N and they being forced into an extremely difficult situation. Cheren leaving so he could collect the final Gym Badge from Opelucid city so that he could follow behind his friend on Victory Road, and Bianca so that she could start catching trains all over the region to rally the Gym Leaders, and any other Trainers who wanted to offer their assistance in the battle against Team Plasma.

Alder lost.

And a castle erupted from the ground below the League.

And N lost.

Then the 'real' leader of Team Plasma- N's supposed father- showed up- the man who'd given the speech in Accumula.

Ghetsis.

After a battle that seemed to last forever but was over in the blink of an eye, the Hero stood victorious, glaring across the hall at Ghetsis with eyes so cold they could freeze you; with eyes so blazing you could burn.

The way the old man was speaking reminded everyone of a toddler's tantrum. Cheren and Alder lead him out of the castle to where a huge band of Trainers from all over the region were stood calling jeers and insults and demands of their stolen pokémon back, and to a group of people from the International Police.

Cheren didn't really have anything to say to the Interpol, so he wandered around to escape the crowd, until Bianca barreled into him, looking out-of-breath, and she demanded to know if everything went okay- as she'd only just arrived along with both the senior and junior Professor Junipers- and they'd run as fast as they could to reach the League.

He assured them that everything was okay, their friend had won and Team Plasma had been defeated.

The thought solidified as the Hero appeared in the castle doorway, and the crowd's shouting turned to cheers.

They still didn't smile, and barely acknowledged the people trying to talk to them as they walked into the Pokémon Center. Cheren and Bianca hastened to follow them.

They found the Hero sat in a café-style booth, their bag on the table and their head resting on it. Two of the nurses seemed to be busy examining their team's injuries. Bianca and Cheren decided to sit with them- on the same side of the table, and they smiled a little.

All three of them.

A week later, when everything had died down a little, the two of them got hit with awful news from their friend's mother: They had left in the middle of the night, only leaving a note detailing that they were going to search for N after hearing that Ghetsis and the rest of Team Plasma's sages had escaped from the Interpol somehow.

After that, both remaining friends started to drift apart.

Bianca focusing on her job working as Professor Juniper's (junior) assistant, and Cheren challenging the League himself a few times before deciding to change his goal to that of becoming a Gym Leader. Once their paths were decided on, they just... didn't speak or see each other at all for two whole years.

They met again by chance outside of Cheren's new Gym and day job at the Trainers' School in Aspertia, helping a pair of brand new Trainers begin their Gym challenge- the younger of which reminded them so much of their old friend.

Slowly but surely, the two became close friends again, and decided that even if they were drowning in work, they'd meet up at the very least once a year, in a little café in Nacrene that they'd both become fond of, on the anniversary of them starting their journeys.

They met up fairly frequently, often by chance though, but still every year without fail, showed up at that place- the Forest's Path Café, to chat and catch up.

Only one year had it been their only in-person meeting.

They would talk about things like their jobs, their pokémon, friends both new and old, interesting challengers Cheren had met, interesting Trainers Bianca had met, new discoveries, whatever cakes were on sale in the café that day, or just... well, anything.

Though, after around five years, they stopped bringing up their friend. At this point everyone who knew them had assumed the worst- especially since N had returned to Unova fully at this point, and after being pressed by Cheren, admitted that no, he hadn't seen them, and that he was sorry.

Both of them wanted to hope that they'd come back someday, but at this point it was unlikely, whether they'd forgotten, lost their way, didn't want to come back, or... something else, the chance of them returning was slim.

So they went along with their lives, missing them, but still keeping on. Still continuing to meet up on the same day every year- September 18th.

Today was that day, and, Cheren and Bianca met outside the café. It felt a little odd; these days Bianca was usually early, and Cheren usually a little late. So meeting each other right on the dot at the door felt like old times.

They cracked a couple of the same jokes as always- the 'fancy seeing you here' and the 'wow, I feel like I know you from somewhere', before heading inside, already knowing they would order the same drinks and food as always: A chamomile and mango tea, with a slice of whatever cake was recommended to her by the person on the till for Bianca, and a hot cocoa accompanied by a meringue covered in whipped cream and fresh fruit for Cheren.

Though, as the café's little door bell jingled quietly as the door fell shut behind them, the pair stood, frozen to the spot as they caught the gaze of a person with a mop of dark brown hair and warm but cool eyes sitting at the table they always sat at.

The person sent a sheepish smile their way.

Both of them were thinking similar things.

_Should I be mad? _

_What do I say? _

_Oh, thank _goodness_ they're smiling again._

They came to the same conclusion. Working out their issues would come later.

Now, they ran to their friend, who had stood up to greet them with a nervous air about them that none had seen before, and all three of them wrapped each other in a tight embrace. And all three of them were close to tears.

Nevermind, all three of them were crying.

Only their friend, the Hero of Unova and the villain who'd caused them so much heartache these past nine years, could speak through their crying.

"I'm so, so sorry I didn't call. And that I took so long. And that I didn't say bye properly... and- and-" their voice shook and they could barely get out anything else, and Cheren and Bianca started to hurry to silence their apology because it was _okay_, they were _back now_, that apologies and stories could come _later, _after some light-hearted catching up. And so their friend stopped stammering, took a deep breath, and tried again.

"So... How've you two been?"

**Author's Note:**

> sorry if this is rushed!! im kind of drained bc of school but i really wanted to throw something together for bw's ninth birthday!!!!!!  
the friend can be viewed as Hilda, Hilbert, or any interpretation of the protag that you played as in bw!!!!!! :D


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